A Bad Mission
Chapter XVI- 'This One's for Me!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and you're stupid if you thought if one second I did. : )
Warning: This fic has both shounen-ai and cross-dressing.
"Sasuke?" Sakura asked with amazement in her voice when she saw him leaning up against the lone tree across the road from her house. "You're back!"

"I heard you were going out with Naruto now," Sasuke said, skipping all the formalities and pleasantries.

"Oh, yeah, I guess I am," Sakura admitted.

"Hm," Sasuke mumbled out his reply while he nodded his head.

"It's really good to see you again, Sasuke," Sakura said happily as she knowingly changed the subject.

"Mmhm," Sasuke agreed distractedly before disappearing in a puff of air and leaving a slightly confused Sakura behind.

"What do you think people will do once they realize Sasuke's back?" Sakura asked the boy she was still (miraculously, if looked at from Naruto's point of view) going out with.

"Freak out," Naruto shrugged, "But at least this way his trial's done faster, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Sakura agreed, not at all thinking along the same lines. But Naruto was rarely ever optimistic these days and she really didn't want to ruin it for him.

"Sasuke's so screwed," Naruto announced, dropping back into pessimism with a sigh.

Sakura just looked up at the tree they were sitting under and immersed herself in sadness and hopelessness.

"Come on, let's go," Naruto said, getting up from the ground and brushing himself off.

"Go where?" Sakura asked, pretty sure she had missed something.

"You want Sasuke to at least have a chance, right? Then we've gotta help him," Naruto explained, heading towards Sasuke's old house on the outskirts of town without waiting for a reply.

And Sakura followed, feeling the same as Naruto (first loves, no one ever seemed to be able to let them go) and she smiled sadly when she noticed Naruto had a bounce in his step again. It was Sasuke that did that, not her.

Sasuke looked through his old clothing and realized that nothing quite fit him any more. He sighed, wearing only a towel after scrubbing himself raw in the shower and reminding himself that Itachi touched every damn spot on his body.

He had already thrown the clothes he was wearing when he got home away (after deciding that lighting them on fire probably wasn't such a good idea considering he wasn't actually welcome in the village right now and a fire would most likely alert people of the fact that he was here) and there was no way he was ever wearing them again. Those were Itachi's clothes and he already had more memories of his brother than he could handle.

He tensed when he heard a soft knock on his door. As far as the villagers knew he wasn't here, and his house was completely out of the way, too. Who would be stupid enough to walk that far just to knock at a house no one lived in?

"Sasuke, open the door. It's weird to just be standing here," Sakura whispered through the wood.

Sakura…he really should have thought of that possibility before.

He got behind the door and opened it so no one would be able to see him.

"Creeeepy,' Naruto remarked quietly as the door seemingly opened on its own, and Sakura didn't know if it was supposed to be sarcastic or if he really meant it.

"Hurry up," Sasuke hissed from his position behind the door.

"Alright, alright, we're in," Naruto announced, rolling his eyes and acting annoyed.

Sasuke closed the door and ended up staring at Naruto's and Sakura's backs as they both looked at his now-messy living room.

"Last time I was here it was so clean," Sakura stated. "Did someone sneak in and trash it?"

"I couldn't find anything that still fit," Sasuke replied when he realized Sakura was probably waiting for answer.

"I didn't realize you grew so much," Sakura said in surprise as she turned around to see if he really did grow taller and she just missed it.

"The shirts are a little tight, but wearable. It's the pants that don't fit anymore," Sasuke said, shrugging before realizing Sakura's wide-eyed expression. "What?"

"What?" Naruto asked with a lot more enthusiasm than Sasuke could ever pull off (not that he would ever want to) as he turned around to look at his two teammates. He froze up too.

"What?" But the two were saved from having to answer the young Uchiha by a knock on the door.

"I know you're in there Sasuke," Kakashi's voice floated through, "I'm going to wait two more seconds to be welcomed in the traditional way before I kick down the door."

And Sasuke hastily opened the door, still behind it so if other people were passing on the street they wouldn't see him.

"Naruto, Sakura…what are you starring at?" Kakashi asked his two students curiously as he walked in.

"Are you here to drag me to see the Hokage?" Sasuke interrupted, ready to fight if his teacher said 'yes'.

"I'll give you a couple of days to get your story together," Kakashi granted as he turned around and finally gazed upon his student. "Whoa."

"What?"

Kakashi was surprised to say the least. If Sasuke's brother really did what they had assumed he did then…well then there was very little chance that Sasuke would be wearing only a towel around when he had guests. Maybe they were wrong…or he blocked it out?

"Is there a reason you're only wearing a towel? New fashion statement, perhaps? I am getting old, maybe a missed the memo," Kakashi answered, quickly getting over his surprise.

"I don't have any pants that fit," Sasuke answered as he rolled his eyes. Was that what Sakura and Naruto were starring at? Had they never seen him without a shirt before?

"I planned for that actually," Kakashi said happily as he threw some pants in Sasuke's direction. "Those should fit."

Sasuke nodded his head as thanks and quickly slipped his new pants on. "Will you stop starring already?" Sasuke snapped when he no longer needed the towel and was just looking around for a shirt.

"You're so…" Sakura began.

"…Ripped," Naruto finished before leaping forward and touching his teammate's even-more-defined abs.

Sasuke tensed immediately and shoved the other boy off of him before he even had time to think. "I just took a shower, don't make me have to take another one by touching me," he covered up quite well.

But that was enough proof to convince Kakashi that yes, Itachi did do what they thought he did. And judging by the looks on the others' faces it was enough proof for Naruto and Sakura too.

"I'm going to bed," Sasuke announced a little angrily as he quickly forced a shirt on and headed towards what could only be assumed as the bedroom before he slammed the door behind him.

"Itachi!" Sasuke gasped when he woke up in the middle of the night with his brother standing over him.

"Even though we parted just a few days ago it feels like years, doesn't it Little Brother?"

"What the hell do you want?" Sasuke said, more than a little surprised that his voice managed to remain steady.

"Again, I'm ashamed that you don't seem to feel the same way that I do and keep thinking I have ulterior motives," Itachi replied. "I want whatever you want."

"I want you dead, you twisted fuck," Sasuke growled.

"Fine," his brother agreed, tossing a kunai at him. "Do it then."

Sasuke blinked when he caught the weapon. This wasn't right; it wasn't supposed to be this easy.

"It's now or never Little Brother. By tomorrow the Hokage will probably have me killed and then they'll go after you," Itachi explained. "You either kill me now or someone else will."

Sasuke blinked again. It wasn't this easy. Itachi was planning something.

"Do you not have the guts?"

"Why?" Sasuke asked, ignoring his brother's question and getting up from his bed to approach the last of his clan with a kunai.

"I'm done, Sasuke. I escaped my holding cell, but it did its job anyway; I'm too weak and beat up to run far."

Sasuke only glared at him as he held the weapon just millimeters from his brother's neck.

"I don't want to die and have indifference behind it. I always imagined myself getting killed by someone who hated me during the middle of a great battle. I don't want to die by a man who is indifferent to me. I want passion…because intense hatred is almost like love, is it not?"

Sasuke snorted, "Only if you're masochistic," before driving the knife into his brother's throat.

Kakashi sprinted down the street flanked by Naruto and Sakura in a scene that looked a little too familiar to all of them.

"What if Itachi's already killed him?" Sakura asked, almost crying. She was about to lose Sasuke again and it was becoming too much.

"Keep running," Kakashi demanded sharply, offering no words of encouragement or hope because he couldn't find any.

"How could he escape from the holding cell? Everyone's always going on about how good it is…well what's the use if it can't even hold one person!" Naruto shouted as he saw Sasuke's house still quite a ways away.

"Keep your heads!" Kakashi demanded angrily. "If Sasuke is alive we'll be of no help to him if we become irrational!"

"But we have no idea when Itachi escaped. It could have been just a few minutes ago or as soon as we left Sasuke alone last night," Sakura pointed out, about to tumble off the emotional edge and holding back a sob.

"That doesn't matter right now. After we know Sasuke's safe then we'll start worrying about the details," Kakashi explained as he jumped and kicked down Sasuke's door in a fluid motion.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shrieked, quickly running from room to room.

Naruto was the one that stumbled onto the bedroom first, but quickly afterwards he felt Kakashi's hand on his shoulder and Sakura's gasp from behind him.

"Itachi," Naruto mumbled as he looked at Sasuke's brother lying on the floor in a puddle of blood.

"But then where's Sasuke?" Sakura asked, still worried.

"This might explain it," Kakashi announced, tearing a piece of paper from where it was fastened to the wall by a bloody kunai.

I have some business I still need to take care of.

--Uchiha

Okay, so I totally lied...sorry. A Bad Mission won't be seventeen chapters, it'll probably be eighteen. I'm pretty much done with chapter seventeen (which is surprising, because I previously hit a small wall that I couldn't seem to get past). It's over 3000 words and I'm far from done, so yeah...it'll probably be eighteen chapters...definitely more than seventeen. Sorry about the confusion.